[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1010-E1011]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            IN CELEBRATION OF THE 80TH BIRTHDAY OF MALCOLM X

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate what would have 
been the 80th birthday of Malcolm X, formally El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. 
This is an opportune moment for this country and the world to reflect 
on the life and times of this extraordinary individual. In his short 
life, Malcolm X overcame many difficulties and challenges to become a 
leading figure in the movement for black liberation.
  Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. 
He was one of eight children born to Earl and Louise Little. Earl 
Little was an outspoken Baptist minister and supporter of Marcus 
Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. He taught his family 
of the importance of working together for their collective advancement 
and of the need to restore pride and commitment in their community and 
race. His fierce advocacy for racial justice prompted a number of death 
threats against him, required his family to relocate twice before 
Malcolm's fourth birthday, and eventually to lose their home to arson.
  In 1931, the body of Earl Little was found lying across the town's 
train tracks. The police ruled the death an accident, but Malcolm 
learned the true cost of passionate activism. His mother suffered an 
emotional breakdown and was institutionalized, following the death. His 
siblings were split up amongst various foster homes and orphanages. 
Malcolm was separated from the family he had known and loved.
  Malcolm nonetheless was an outstanding student. He was at the top of 
his class in junior high school and had aspirations of becoming a 
lawyer. With the early lessons of his father about the importance of 
education and self-pride, Malcolm was prepared to shine in the academic 
and legal worlds. However, he lost interest in these aspirations when a 
favorite teacher crushed his dreams and told him that law was not a 
realistic goal for a Black man in the 1940s.
  Disillusioned, Malcolm dropped out of school after the 8th grade and 
moved to Harlem, where he unfortunately turned to a life of crime. By 
1942, Malcolm was coordinating various crime rings in New York City. In 
1946, he was arrested, convicted on burglary charges, and sentenced to 
10 years in prison. Finding himself headed in the wrong direction and 
exposed for the first time to the teachings of the Nation of Islam, 
Malcolm re-dedicated himself to academic pursuits and understanding 
economic and social disempowerment.
  Undoubtedly guided by his father's activism, his own life 
experiences, and his time in NYC, Malcolm X became a loyal adherent and 
follower of Minister Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. He argued 
that the discrimination and racism present in American society kept 
African-Americans from achieving true political, economic, and social 
power and that the system would continue to perpetuate discrimination 
and racism unless African-Americans stood up for themselves and against 
the system.
  In keeping with the teachings of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm adopted 
the ``X'' as a surname to demonstrate that his African identity and 
cultural roots had been unknown to him. Following his parole in 1952, 
he became an outspoken defender and spokesman for the Nation of Islam. 
He was placed in charged of new mosques in Harlem, Detroit, and 
Michigan. He became an effective voice of Nation of Islam through 
newspaper, radio and television communications and was credited with 
helping to increase membership from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963.
  While he spoke in bitterness and hatred towards whites, he spoke 
about his experiences and interactions with people. From the death of 
his father to his favorite teacher to numerous others he had 
encountered, Malcolm talked about what he knew and that, like for many 
African-Americans at the time, was not a beloved experience. He spoke 
for those whose dreams were crushed by the educational system, whose 
families suffered at the hands of economic injustice, whose leaders 
fought for social equality, and whose futures did not look bright.
  Malcolm however would become disheartened by the Nation of Islam, 
after learning of indiscretions committed by Minister Muhammad and 
attempts by the organization to conceal them. Unwilling to participate 
in what he believed was deception, he was marginalized within the 
organization. In 1964, he separated from the Nation of Islam and formed 
his own organizations, the Organization of Afro-American Unity and the 
Muslim Mosque, Inc.
  In 1964, Malcolm X traveled outside the United States to Africa, 
Mecca, and Saudi Arabia. The trip would become a transcendent period in 
his life. For the first time in his life, he came in contact with 
different cultures and races that treated him with respect for who he 
was. He broke bread with Muslims of various races and saw that 
brotherhood was not limited by race. He saw humanity and compassion in 
its true form and was moved by the recognition that it really was 
universal.
  When he returned, Malcolm adopted the name El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz. 
He returned to the United States with a new sense of purpose and a 
different set of experiences. He spoke about how he had met ``blonde-
haired, blue-eyed men I could call my brothers.'' He was prepared to 
work with men of all races to achieve true racial justice. He was 
prepared to lead a movement for the liberation of the disadvantaged in 
America.
  Unfortunately, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in 
Harlem on February 14, 1965--more than 40 years ago this year. At 
Malcolm's funeral, the actor Ossie Davis eulogized him and asked the 
crowd of onlookers, ``Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you 
ever really listen to him? For if you did you would know him. And if 
you knew him you would know why we must honor him.'' Unfortunately, we 
will never know what Malcolm X could have done with another 40 years.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit into the Record a statement by Trans-Africa 
Forum President Bill Fletcher, Jr. demonstrating how Malcolm was an 
inspiration in the global struggle for freedom and human rights, with 
many world leaders embracing him and his philosophy.

        Malcolm X: Remembering Him as More Than a Postage Stamp


 A statement by Trans-Africa Forum President Bill Fletcher, Jr. on the 
   occasion of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X

       February 21, 2005--February 21, 2005 marks the 40th 
     anniversary of the assassination of African American freedom 
     fighter Malcolm X, aka El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Realizing 
     that had he lived, Malcolm would have been turning 80 this 
     year stands in contrast to the memories many of us have--or 
     have gained since his death through photos, recordings of 
     speeches and documentaries--of an audacious young Black man 
     who unquestionably spoke truth to power. Malcolm, gunned down 
     at the age of 39, represented a defiance and commitment that 
     most of us can only aspire to achieve. He spoke our anger 
     against oppression, and our pain suffered from this same 
     oppression, while constantly demonstrating a love and respect 
     for us as a people.
       Similar to the experience in the years that have passed 
     since the death of Martin Luther King, there have been 
     constant attempts to rewrite the life and thought of Malcolm 
     X. Despite all of this, generation after generation have 
     rediscovered the real Malcolm, even if only in pieces that 
     have to be assembled in the giant game of history.
       In an era where much confusion reigns within Black America 
     due to the emergence of figures such as General Colin Powell 
     and Dr. Condoleezza Rice, it is useful to reflect upon two 
     central themes in the life and work of Malcolm X: one, that 
     our struggle in the United States as African Americans was 
     and is fundamentally a struggle for human rights rather than 
     civil rights. Two, that our struggle is bound up with 
     struggles taking place around the world against imperialism 
     and other forms of injustice.
       The issue of civil rights vs. human rights is critically 
     important and for more than semantic reasons. Malcolm was 
     challenging much of the leadership of the then Civil Rights 
     Movement to understand that the issue before Black America 
     was not simply or only one of constitutional rights within 
     the U.S. framework. Malcolm suggested, following upon leaders 
     such as Du Bois, Robeson and Patterson, that the issues at 
     stake for African Americans were more than discrimination, as 
     important as that was and is. Instead, Malcolm observed that 
     the oppression faced by Black America has been central to the 
     reality of the USA since before it was the USA, i.e., since 
     the beginning of colonial North America. Our situation, in 
     other words, was not an aberration from an otherwise humane 
     record. Rather, the oppression that we have faced has shaped 
     the basic existence and substance of the United States, and, 
     along with the genocide faced by Native Americans, helps one 
     to understand the inability of this country to establish a 
     truly democratic republic.
       For Malcolm, then, Black America was demanding not only an 
     end to discrimination, but recognition of our human rights as 
     a people, up to and including the right to national self-
     determination. Malcolm concluded that as a people who had 
     been subjected to hundreds of years of naked and vicious 
     oppression, only an international body,

[[Page E1011]]

     such as the United Nations, had the location and moral 
     authority to address the true resolution of our condition.
       For this, Malcolm became one of the most dangerous people 
     in the USA, at least for those who oppress us.
       Malcolm did not stop there. Linked to his understanding of 
     human rights, Malcolm also situated our struggle for human 
     rights alongside the struggles that were underway in Asia, 
     Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America for national 
     independence and liberation. Again, following in the 
     footsteps of freedom fighters going back to the early 19th 
     century, Malcolm insisted that to only view our struggle 
     through the prism of North American eyes would be to condemn 
     our struggle to failure. As such, Malcolm paid attention to 
     educating Black America to the relevance of struggles 
     underway overseas, such as the movement in the Democratic 
     Republic of the Congo for complete freedom from both the 
     Belgians and the USA. He was also an early and incisive 
     critic of the expanding U.S. aggression in Indochina.
       To build ties, Malcolm spent time developing bonds of 
     friendship and comradeship with some of the most important 
     international leaders of the struggles for national 
     liberation of the 1960s. These were not symbolic, but 
     represented an attempt to build allies who could be called 
     upon to support our struggle for freedom.
       For this, Malcolm became one of the most dangerous people 
     in the USA . . . at least for those who oppress us. For us, 
     the oppressed, he was our champion. Far from being a savior, 
     Malcolm saw himself as a spokesperson for a movement; yet 
     never more important than the movement. He understood that it 
     is people in motion rather than individual leaders who shift 
     the tracks of history.
       And so, it is time to again remember Malcolm and to cherish 
     him through continuing in his footsteps, footsteps that were 
     molded by an insistence on struggle, audacity, and, yes, love 
     for his people.

                          ____________________